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The 2004 Tsunami Story

"At 00:58:53 UTC, on Sunday, the 26 December 2004, an extremely powerful Earthquake of magnitude 9.3 on the Richter Scale, off an Indonesian island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean, generated a powerful, devastating Tsunami, that extinguished 227,898 human lives, in a matter three hours. The waves ranging from a height of 30 meters (100 feet) to 54 meters (175 feet), battered the coast line of Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar."

Tsunami - A True Story

I was posted to a helicopter training squadron in the Navy those days when the Tsunami struck. Our base was 70 kilometers from the coastal area when the Tsunami came that day and created chaos and confusion. I had not even heard about a Tsunami, and I had no idea about what is a Tsunami.

I was on leave from 25 December 2004. I spend the Christmas with my Squadron mates and I along with my family had a train reservation on the night of 26 Dec, to my home town about 700 kilometers away.

At 6:15 am on 26 Dec 2004 my phone rang and I woke up. It was my Squadron Commander who had a habit of waking me up early morning, whenever I take a short leave. I cursed myself and picked up the land phone.

On the other end as expected was my Squadron Commander who sounded very serious, "I know you were in bed. But, this is urgent. A Tsunami had struck the country. Get dressed up the way you are, and come to the Squadron, right now. I am waiting with a helicopter to take off with you."

My wife brought me a cup of hot tea. I saw it simmering and didn't want to waste any more time to drink it. There was some emergency, otherwise my Squadron Commander won't call me the way he did.

I was still sleepy and I did not know what hit me on a Sunday morning. I brushed my teeth, got dressed due to the urgency with which my Squadron Commander spoke to me and left on my bike for the Air Station, with out a Shave, Shower or even a bed tea.

When I reached the hangar, I saw the Air Base Commanding Officer and my Squadron Commander in Flying Overalls, standing next to one of our helicopter. The Sun was still rising.

The air base Commanding Officer said, "Son, your leave is cancelled, and you have been recalled."

I didn't quite understand and replied, "Sir, I have a train reservation for I and my family tonight to my home town."

This time my Squadron Commander said, "A massive Tsunami has hit the coastline and we have to get airborne and get the photography and videography done. I am walking towards the aircraft to start the engines. You go quickly change into your flying overalls and come to the aircraft. We will get airborne in the next 5 minutes."

I didn't understand what is a Tsunami. But, I went changed to my flying overalls, boots, gloves and also put my flying bone dome (helmet) and came running back to our aircraft. My Squadron Commander had already done the aircraft external checks, started the aircraft engine and was waiting for me to engage the main rotors of the helicopter. All the while the word Tsunami kept haunting me. What is Tsunami?

Day 1 Story: We Saw Tsunami

This Tsunami True Story is unbelievable even today to me. We got airborne and flew south for 30 miles and then east towards the coastline. We did not know what to expect and what to take a video about. We reached a town which is known for its pilgrimage spots. We descended down from 1000 feet to 100 feet height above ground.

There was a 9 meter high sea wall all along the coast. People were standing on the sea wall and looking at the sea. Normally when we fly the helicopter very low, people start looking at us and waving at the helicopter. But today, these hundreds of people just stared at the sea and ignored the helicopter which is making hell of a sound just over their head. We did not understand this human behavior.

We decided to fly along the coast line. We could not see any difference initially. We discussed what is this Tsunami. What are we here to record on video. We had no clue as to what to video record or photograph.

That is when it struck me that the last time a couple of months ago, when we flew along this coast whilst transiting to another air base, I had seen villages all along with the coast. And there were boats parked all along the coast line near the villages. But that day, all the boats were missing.

I said to my copilot, "There are no boats. It never happens that all the boats take to sea all at the same time."

My copilot though he was a trainee replied, "Yes Sir, even I was wondering where are the villages and villagers gone? We haven't seen any villages, boats or people for a long time now."

That is when I realized that as far as my eyes can see there was not a single boat, not a single huts in sight which means something. That was not normal. I started looking at the coast line. That is when I saw, that there was no coast line or beaches. Water was flowing in to the land at some places and flowing back to the sea at other places. That was not normal.

We realized that were discovering Tsunami. More tragedy lay ahead for us to discover. As we flew at a 100 feet above the ground, I realized the chilling truth that 2 to 3 feet below the sea water, where there were villages and houses, now just the foundation of the homes where they existed were visible and that too with water flowing over those foundations from the sea and into the sea.

All the houses had been washed away without a trace by the Tsunami. There was no coast line anymore. Luckily, our camera man had also realized this and had started his video recording of our flight along the coast line.

We continued along the coast line still under the after effects of the Tsunami. Then came a small town. The land is jutting out into the sea and there were two very long beaches at 90 degrees to each other. Even some lone coconut trees lay flat on the beaches closer to the coast line as they had all been uprooted.

We continued flying our helicopter low along the coast line and little landwards. That is when we saw another small town, with a train stopped about 500 yards of open beach from the sea shore. When we went near the train, we realized that train was in fact at a railway station. The only abnormality this time was that, on the other side of the train was a deserted railway platform. Even the passenger train was empty. That made us think again, what is Tsunami.

As we started going further along the railway line the beach got even wider. We realized that there is no railway line on either side of the train. How did the train come there if there is no railway line to and from the railway station. That was the next abnormality.

So we looked further and there lay the missing pieces of the railway track, about 300 meters away near the coconut plantations. We still didn't understand how the railway track got moved over 300 meters. Could it be the Tsunami?

Anyway our videographer had also realized the way were, and had started continuously recording everything. Because if we go back and tell our Air Base Commanding Officer, I was very sure he would never believe us. I showed our videographer a thumbs up to tell him that he is doing a good job.

Since there was nothing much to see along the coast line, we decided to fly inland. As we started flying towards the land, we saw a huge bridge that had collapsed in to a river. We went further and saw quite a few Red Cross vehicles.

Then we flew over a coconut farm about a kilometer wide along the coast. We were almost 6 kilometers inland from the coast. We overflew a lone 3 story house with a ground, first and second floors. It was all flooded in and around the house.

But what caught our attention was that the front and side boundary walls of that 3 story house had fallen and there were about half a dozen wooden boats lying between the 3 story house and rear boundary wall which amazingly was still standing as probably the house itself had protected it.

What was more surprising was that there were 3 boats haphazardly placed on the terrace of the 3 story house. Did the Tsunami bring the boards so much inland? I told my self, "No, it cannot be." Because I did not know what a Tsunami is.

I told my copilot, "It looks like this man knew about Tsunami and has brought all his boats to protect them behind his house and placing some boats even on top the terrace of his 3 story house. I wonder how he got those heavy boats weighing over a ton each on top of the terrace which is at least 10 meters high."

My copilot didn't reply. Instead he too looked puzzled. We had burned quite some fuel flying the helicopter almost a 100 nautical miles from the base to record the Tsunami. So, we decided to go back to the air base. We flew along the same route we had followed, so that our videographer could record anything that he might have missed recording.

When we landed after 2:30 hours of flying the helicopter, our Air Base Commanding Officer was still waiting there for us. My Squadron Commander went to brief the Commanding Officer and I went to off to finish my morning routine. I was very hungry too.

The Tsunami Relief Operation

I went home after I landed after flying the Tsunami video recording mission. Within 30 minutes of my reaching home I got a call from my Squadron Commander.

My Squadron Commander said on phone, "Boy, pack some overnight stay kit and come back in 10 minutes. You have to embark on a small ship with the helicopter with a trainee pilot. The ship is being sent on a Tsunami relief mission."

I quickly packed my overnight kit which I as a helicopter pilot is so used to in my career as a Search and Rescue pilot. And I headed for my Squadron in my car. On reaching there, I met Squadron Commander who briefed me on the Tsunami mission quickly because the ship on which I have to land my helicopter and sail for a few days, had already sailed out to sea and is sailing along the coast southwards.

I took of with one of the trainee pilot as my copilot in my helicopter. As it was Christmas, the other two qualified pilots were already out of station on leave. And the Squadron Commander has to stay back as Search and Rescue pilot in the Air Base. An hour after takeoff, I landed on the small ship with a small helicopter deck on the ship's rear end.

After landing on the ship, I went and met the Captain of the ship who said, "There is not much to do today. You may relax now. By morning we will be reaching our assigned destination for the Tsunami relief mission. We will start the relief operation by first light tomorrow morning. So have a good sleep as it is going to be a tiring day tomorrow onwards."

I came back had lunch, and went to the ship's operation room to find the exact plan for the next day. There after there was nothing much to do that day. I went and briefed my copilot and my ground crew also to relax. I briefed my ground crew to get the aircraft prepared for flying well before the sunrise.

Day 2: Tsunami Relief Operation

The entire ship was awake and buzzing at 5:00 am. We went for Tsunami mission flight briefing to the ship's bridge. The ship's bridge is a place with windows all around to look out and the Captain sits there. Rest everyone has to stand as there is no other chair except the Captain's chair.

This is done deliberately in all the ships world over to prevent people from falling asleep if they sit and relax. And if you sit you cannot see outside. So the Captain's revolving chair is placed on a pedestal much higher so that he can see outside whilst sitting also.

Normally, the Navigating officer conducts all flight briefing. But that day, the ship's Captain himself conducted the Tsunami relief flight briefing. The Captain told us that we have to go and distribute water and food first to as many needy people as possible in the morining.

Thereafter, in the afternoon, we have to send the one dozens of doctors and medical staff, who were embarked on our ship the previous day, specifically for Tsunami relief mission to the land. They will go with medicines, ration and tents etc. The doctors and medical staff will go and setup temporary accommodation and start their medical relief operation for the injured Tsunami victims for the next few days.

I got airborne in our helicopter with food in gunny bags and water in jerrycans to be distributed to the Tsunami hit areas. But as we approached the people they folded their hands in prayer and requested for help. We went near some crowd and tried to land to place the provisions we were carrying on the ground.

When I landed near the crowd and started placing the items we carried on the ground, I suddenly realized that people from the crowd are running towards us. My helicopter had a main rotor and a tail rotor which is just 6 inches from ground and rotating at a speed of over 2000 rmp. Anyone getting into it by mistake will be chopped into pieces in a second.

I told my crew to get back into the helicopter and took off. Then we would go low over the crowd, fly away by about 500 yards from the crowd and only then land and put the food and water on ground. In the afternoon we did the same procedure to land the Doctors, medical staff, tents, medicine etc.

I flew over 10 hours that day skipping lunch for the Tsunami relief mission. After flying I went to the ship's bridge and briefed the Captain about all that happened that day. He was happy and that made me satisfied by the day's adventure. It was a very tiring day. After an early dinner, I hit the bed and slept off.

Day 3: Tsunami Operations Ends

I woke up at 5:00am and got ready. Took the flight briefing for Tsunami operations from the Ship's Bridge. The Captain and the Navigating Officer were there. After briefing I came down and had a light breakfast and went to the flight deck to continue with the Tsunami operations. Today, it was only to drop food and water at various places to aid the grieving people who had lost everyone near and dear to them.

I noticed change in human behavior. On the first day, people ignored our helicopter flying just over their head at 100 feet. On the second day after the Tsunami, they looked at us like their saviors and stood looking at us and begging for food and water, with folded hands.

But the old habits die hard. The people would come towards us from all directions. We were cautiously landing closer to the sea. We would overfly a crowd low, go about one kilometer away from them, land in a suitable place away from any human presence and disembark one or two gunny bags of food and one or two jerrycans of water and take off again before people reach us running at full speed to collect what we had unloaded.

We were doing this to avoid anyone getting injured or killed by hitting the helicopter rotors, especially the tail rotors. Tsunami had taken the life of thousands. We did not want to asd to that number.

These Tsunami humanitarian mission went on the whole day. We must have dispatched about 3 tons of food and 2 tons of water to the locals using our helicopter at various places. In addition we also distributed medicines to our own medical team who had put up medical camps.

After lunch when we started flying again, we saw the gory scene. Everywhere we looked there was death. This being the third day, the bloated dead bodies had started surfacing from the sea and water logged areas in the land. The dead bodies were so bloated up and big.

In the sea, we could see bloated dead bodies of men, women and children floating. We flew a little higher and we were amazed to see that there would have been at least two to four thousand bodies every kilometer along the coast line in the water and hundreds of bodies lay spread on the beach. The sea waves had just started depositing bodies along the beach by the afternoon.

Over land every 10x10 meters square there were at least 15 dead bodies floating in the water logged areas. This was very gory scene to watch. I had never seen thousands of dead human and animal bodies the way I was seeing. I did not know how to react. We continued our mission of distributing food, medicine and water for the living disregarding the dead.

By the evening we noticed many animal dead bodies also had started surfacing an hour or two later. Now there were dead bodies of human beings and animals all floating together in the water and also lay on the beach.

In many places we saw the Red Cross was on their Tsunami humanitarian mission, collecting human dead bodies, covering them with white cloth and putting them in heaps of a 100 or more and setting them on fire. Mass funerals were being undertaken by the Red Cross organization.

I remembered the 3 boats kept on top of the third floor of the house we had seen two days ago. Now I realized that the big Tsunami waves must have lifted the boats over 20 meter tall palm tree plantations and deposited the boats on top of that house over 6 kilometers inland from the sea shore. Only such a big nature's force could have taken the lives of so many human beings and animals which have surfaced today afternoon.

By the evening we were ordered to wind up all the Tsunami operation activities in that place and return back to base. We were ordered to get our medical teams and their tents, remaining medicines etc. The army had taken over the operations in that area. Our Naval Ship was tasked to be sent to a foreign country for Tsunami relief mission.

As we flew back to the ship for the last time with the last medical staff close to Sun set time, I came very low over the beach to show the medical staff, the thousands of dead bodies, of those people who lost their lives thanks to the Tsunami, floating in the sea and splattered all along the beach for one last time, I saw a tractor towing a trailer, going on the beach zig zagging.

The tractor was zig zagging as the driver tried to avoid running over the human dead bodies, in which he was failing very often. There were 3 dead bodies nicely covered in white cloth lying in the Trailor of the Tractor.

And a small boy of probably 8 or 9 years of age, stood watching the dead bodies on the beach. The moment we came near the tractor, the boy jumped in joy, clapping and waving at our helicopter. As we crossed the tractor, I saw the tractor driver, probably the father of the small boy, also waving at us. He did not look sad at all.

This scene told me one thing. On the first day when the Tsunami hit, people were all frightened and panicking. They ignored our helicopter even when we went low and hovered over them.

The second day, people were back to their senses as hunger and thirst hit them and there was no food or fresh water anywhere. The entire villages, towns and even railway lines were washed away by the Tsunami. They stood with folded hands welcoming the helicopter, because they knew we came to help them with food and water.

On the third day, just after 48 to 60 hours after the Tsunami hit, people came back normal senses. They did not panic. They were no more scared. They were back to their normal life. They were smiling again. They have overcome the shock of death and devastation the Tsunami had wiped out their homes, their relatives, their friends and almost everything they possessed on earth.

Now that is what is life is all about. Forget the painful past and move on with your life.

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